Easy Rider Breakdown

Contextual Analysis:

I was watching easy rider the other day and while I was enjoying it I realised that maybe a lot of the meanings behind what was going would be missed by a standard movie goer, so I thought I breakdown one scene to help you figure out some of the deeper meaning behind what's going on.So let's get to it, the scene that I'll be analysing is the Cemetery Acid Trip scene

Right away we see and hear a lot so let's go through this first piece, in this introduction we see the four main characters in what would be considered unusual clothing. This helps us get a time period for this film, based on other factors around them like a lot of grass (which could be symbolic of later on in the piece) and the sounds of almost industrial mining equipment we can tell that the period is very early possible seventies or eighties going from rough eyeballing of the characters looks.

This is also re almost confirmed with their actions during this short dialogue free stretch, the way that they're just openly drinking in public and showing near constant affection most of the time in a more modern film there wouldn't be this level of affection between any character (except when following the trope of the genre; for example action would be after the catastrophe has been resolved) which helps us to confirm this date theory.

The type of camera shot in this scene is interesting too, it's almost between a medium and a wide shot giving us enough detail for the characters and the environment around them, making it the perfect type of shot for setting the scene with some foreshadowing whilst still being enigmatic about where they are and why they're there (which we then later learn is to take drugs) causing the start of this scene to be curious but also relaxed as there no fast-paced edits making action or quick changes to the angle and type of shot making it appear to the audience as a break almost from the main bulk.

This changes when they then take the drugs and it has some rapid changes and moves which highlights the chaos of the scene and probably the experiences that the characters have in that moment. Linking that to the hue over the entire scene (light sepia over it to add to the old feeling and an altered state that the characters enter) and the non-diegetic mix (between dialogue and the repeated sound of something banging in the background throughout the whole scene), which is a stark contrast to the relative calm of the previous scene where there was just ambience and quiet dialogue, we can tell that what happened to these characters wasn't exactly normal or what we would consider sane behaviour.

As previously mentioned there's a lot of sounds that happen all within that clip but the only bits that are non-diegetic are the ones that have been added in post (like the narration over other images linking to the person reading, or the banging continuing over everything) but it seems to rely heavily on diegetic making it more of a in the moment type of scene which further adds to the period set and made.

It looks as though it's both made and set in the late sixties/early seventies which would make sense given the grain over the film, the almost reliant use of diegetic sound that's carried throughout the entire clip to help it establish that they had to almost fully rely on what was captured in the moment rather than being able to add or change things in post as well as they are now. It helps to create atmosphere and immersion within the surroundings as it comes from the actual scene itself, almost like an audio mis-en-scene as well as a visual one too.

Lighting was another overarching theme throughout too, having a slightly sepia filter over the scene where they're sat before doing drugs helps to reinforce this sort of calm given from the scene, it has a warm kind of glow to it helping for this appealing yet calm feel at the beginning when they're establishing the acid drop where the filter has gone and it all seems to drop a shade or two in colour grading; maybe hinting at an almost dark decent once it started.

Hopefully this has given you a better idea of some of the things to keep an eye out for when watching a film and what they mean when you spot them!

Have a great day!